Before Nextel Cup, there was Winston Cup and before Tony Stewart, there was Bobby Allison. Born in Hialeah, Florida, on December 3, 1937, Bobby Allison is one of NASCAR's greatest drivers.

Allison first experienced racing his senior year at Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School. At that time, his father forced him to quit racing. After finishing high school, Allison and Donnie, his brother, as well as a few friends set out on a quest to find a more profitable side of racing. They ended up in Montgomery, Alabama, at Montgomery Speedway. There was race scheduled in Midfield, a town just out of Birmingham the same night he arrived in Alabama. Bobby Allison not only won that race, but two others that week as well. Settling down in Hueytown, Bobby, Donnie and another legend by the name of Red Farmer became the "Alabama Gang". Bobby Allison tested engines and worked as a mechanic before winning a national championship in 1962.

In 1965, Allison went on the Grand National, where he claimed victory on at Oxford Plains Speedway. In May of 1987, Bobby Allison was in a crash that made NASCAR history when his car turned sideways, went airborne, hitting the protective fence at more than 200 MPH, tearing down a large portion of fence and injuring numerous spectators at the Alabama International Motor Speedway (now know as Talladega Superspeedway). NASCAR ordered the use of smaller carburetors during rest of the 1987 season at Talladega and Daytona. The next year restrictor plates became mandatory there as well, keeping speeds less than 200 miles per hour. Bobby Allison won the first Daytona 500 using restrictor plates in 1988. He accomplished the win by passing his son, Davey Allison, in the first Daytona 500 to have the first and second places held by a father and son. At the age of 50, Bobby Allison was the oldest driver to win the Daytona 500.

Bobby Allison sustained injuries that forced him to retire in a wreck at Pocono Raceway that almost killed him in June of 1988. In 1992, he lost his eldest son, Clifford, in a crash while practicing at the Michigan International Speedway. The same year of Bobby Allison's induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, his son Davey perished when the helicopter he was in went down at Talladega Superspeedway.

Throughout his career, Bobby Allison won 85 races, placing him as all-time third. He is one of only eight racers to achieve "a career Grand Slam" by winning NASCAR's four major races.

In recent years, Bobby has been active in the promotion of rail safety for CSX. He was in a television commercial for Zaxby's restaurant in 2007. Allison suffered yet another loss in March of this year with the passing of his mother, Kittie Allison, at the age of 101.

To find out more about Bobby Allison, visit the official website at www.bobbyallison.com

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